They say good things come in threes, and, when the subject matter is pubs, I’m only too keen to test out the theory.

The pubs in question are those run by Sam Hagger’s Beautiful Pubs Collective, and having been impressed by two of the Collective’s venues - Knight and Garter and Rutland and Derby, both in Leicester - I was decided it was time to check out the final pub in the trio.

So, together with my husband and two boys, I paid a Friday evening visit to The Forge Inn, at Glenfield.

Venue

The Forge Inn, Glenfield (Image: Chris Gordon)

The Forge stands proudly in Main Street, Glenfield, and looks great outside and in.

It underwent a £250,000 refurbishment at the end of last year - which was a joint project between the Beautiful Pubs Collective, which runs the pub, and Everards, which owns the freehold.

It included the creation of a new bar area, a kitchen extension, new seating and carpets in the restaurant, and redecoration of the venue inside and out.

Sustainability is important to the team, so, as well as re-using as much material as possible during the refurbishment, and installing insulation and energy-efficient light fittings, The Forge Inn no longer uses plastic straws, in a bid to cut down the waste going to landfill.

Food

There's a great variety of dishes on the main menu - from steak and chips (or rather chippies as they're called here!) and bangers and mash, to Caesar salad and cauliflower and chickpea curry.

There's a lunchtime menu including 'hot hobs' (filled and baked hot baguettes) and, if you visit between 12pm and 3pm, or 5pm to 7pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays) you can also dine from the Early Bird menu, which offers a good selection of dishes for just £8.95 each.

I opted for the beef chilli, whilst Simon chose the Cajun spiced chicken.

Children's main courses are priced at £6.50, and they can choose from the likes of mini fish and chippies, bangers and mash, beef burger, chicken breast lollypops, creamy mushroom penne and gammon and pineapple.

Both of our boys were in no doubt what they wanted - and that was good old fish and chippies.

Simon's Cajun chicken was equally deliciously (yes I did 'test' quite a bit of it). The Cajun coating certainly had a kick to it, but the accompanying coleslaw had a cooling effect.

It was also served with some of those superb chippies.

Cajun chicken (Image: Becky Jones)

We all felt pretty full after our main courses, but there was no way we were missing out on a pud!

I couldn't resist the old school chocolate fudge cake with Madagascan vanilla gelato, and Simon was keen to try the gluten-free sticky toffee pudding with proper custard (both £5.50).

Chocolate fudge cake (Image: Becky Jones)

Other options included old school jam sponge pudding with Madagascan vanilla gelato and New York inspired cheesecake with fruits of the forest.

Children have a choice of three desserts - chocolate waffle, very berry Eton mess, or Joe Delucci's duo of gelato (£3 each). Well, the mention of 'chocolate' was all they needed to make up their minds.

Simon polished off his sticky toffee pudding, which was rich yet light (due to being gluten-free perhaps).

My chocolate cake was a whopper of a slice, and was deliciously chocolately. The three tier cake was sandwiched with chocolate buttercream and served with a lovely gelato, which was so creamy and packed full of flavour - which isn't always the case with vanilla ice cream or gelato.

Drinks

There's a range of spirits - including gin, vodka, and rum - which is the featured spirit, with a 26-strong selection, as well as wine, beers and ciders.